Dental practice org chart example
A two-dentist practice of about eighteen, drawn around the fact every dental office lives with: the dentist supervises the clinical staff because the license says so, and the office manager runs everything else because the dentist is in an operatory all day. Two lines, one owner over both, and a dotted line where the hygiene schedule belongs to one and the hygiene belongs to the other.
How a dental practice is usually structured
A dental practice has two lines whether or not anyone has drawn them. The clinical line is the dentist's: hygienists and assistants work under a dentist's supervision because their licenses require it, and that line is solid on the chart even in a practice of six. The business line is the office manager's: the schedule, the phones, insurance, billing, collections, the front desk. The owner dentist sits over both, and is also the practice's largest producer, which is the fact that shapes everything else: the person at the top of the chart spends the day in an operatory, and the chart has to work while she is in it.
So the office manager is drawn as a manager, beside the associate dentist and not under her, with the front office stacked beneath: a patient coordinator on the phones and the schedule, a treatment coordinator who presents the treatment plans and follows the money, an insurance and billing coordinator, and the outside bookkeeper and the marketing agency as contractors. The treatment coordinator's dotted line to the owner is the case presentation: she reports to the office manager for the day and to the dentist for what she says in the consult room.
The clinical side splits into hygiene and assisting, each with a lead. Hygiene is the practice's recall engine and its second revenue line, so the lead hygienist reports to the owner for the dentistry and carries a dotted line to the office manager for the schedule, because an empty hygiene chair is a business problem before it is a clinical one. The lead assistant runs the assistants, the sterilization technician and the extern from the assisting program, drawn as an intern; the associate's own chairside assistant reports to the associate, because that is whose hands she works beside. The lab that makes the crowns is a contractor under the owner: it works to the dentists' prescriptions, and a practice that leaves it off has drawn a practice that makes its own crowns.
Typical titles by level
The vocabulary these charts use, from the top down. Titles vary by country and by company; the levels don't.
| Level | Titles you'll see |
|---|---|
| Doctors | Owner Dentist, Practice Owner, Associate Dentist, Dental Director (in a group); visiting specialists (as contractors) |
| Management and leads | Office Manager, Practice Administrator, Regional Manager (in a dental support organization), Lead Hygienist, Lead Dental Assistant, Clinical Coordinator |
| Clinical | Registered Dental Hygienist, Dental Assistant, Expanded Functions Dental Assistant, Sterilization Technician, Dental Assisting Extern (as an intern) |
| Front office and outside | Patient Coordinator, Scheduling Coordinator, Treatment Coordinator, Insurance & Billing Coordinator, Front Desk Receptionist; dental lab, bookkeeper, IT and marketing firms (as contractors) |
Where these charts go wrong
Dental charts go wrong by drawing the office manager as the dentist's assistant; by putting hygienists under the office manager with no clinical line, or under the dentist with no line to the schedule; by leaving assistants floating with no lead, so nobody owns sterilization; by drawing the associate as a manager of the whole clinical staff when she manages one chair; by leaving the lab off; and by giving the owner every one of seventeen people as a direct report, which is a chart of a dentist who never sees a patient.
Questions people ask
- How is a dental office structured?
- An owner dentist over two lines: the clinical line, meaning hygiene and assisting under leads, with any associate dentist running her own chair and assistant; and the business line, meaning an office manager over the front office, insurance and billing, with the bookkeeper and the marketing and IT firms as contractors. The lab is a contractor under the owner. In a practice under ten people the leads are the senior hygienist and the senior assistant without the title; draw them as leads anyway.
- Who does the dental hygienist report to?
- The dentist, for the dentistry, and the office manager, for the schedule. Draw the first solid and the second dotted. A hygienist under the office manager alone has no clinical line, which the license does not allow; a hygienist under the dentist alone has a schedule nobody runs, which the recall system does not survive.
- Does the office manager report to the dentist?
- To the owner, yes, as a manager and not as an assistant: beside the associate dentist, with the front office under them. The distinction matters because the office manager runs the business side that the dentist cannot run from an operatory, and a chart that draws them as the dentist's helper describes a practice where nobody runs it.
- How does the chart change in a dental support organization?
- The practice chart stays the same and gains a layer above it: the office manager reports to a regional or district manager at the organization, and the dentists to a clinical director, with the owner card becoming a lead dentist. Draw the organization's line above the practice, not through it, so the chart still shows how the office runs on a Tuesday.
Other industries
- ManufacturingTwo shifts, and quality kept out of production's line.
- LogisticsDispatch runs the day; supervisors run the people.
- ConstructionOffice and field, meeting on every project.
- Software startupSquads under a CTO; product managers on a dotted line.
- NonprofitThe board on top, programs beside the money.
- Medical practiceA clinical line and a business line, crossing at nursing.
- SchoolDepartments led by teachers who also manage.
- HotelSix divisions around one general manager.
- Marketing agencyDisciplines own people; pods own the work.
- Security & facilities servicesSites stacked under supervisors; a 24-hour control room.
- Sales teamRegions for closers, a team for openers, RevOps beside them.
- Accounting firmA partner pyramid, three service lines.
- Law firmPractice groups, and the business side that runs the firm.
- ChurchA board that governs, a pastor who leads, ministries below.
- RestaurantFront of house and back of house, meeting at the pass.
- IT departmentRun, build and secure, under one director.
- HR departmentPartners, specialists and operations: the three legs.
- Local governmentElected above appointed, and two officers who answer to the council.
- Utility companyField crews, a 24-hour control center, and a regulator in the room.
- BankThree lines of defense, drawn as lines.
- Staffing agencySales desks, recruiting desks, and a back office that pays two thousand people.
- HospitalTwo hierarchies that meet at the bedside.
- Retail chainHead office, the field, and a store drawn once.
- Small businessOne owner, two managers, and the jobs the owner still does.
- Finance departmentAccounting closes the books; FP&A says what they mean.
- Marketing departmentDemand, product, brand, and the operations under all three.
- Customer service departmentTeams on the floor; quality, training and scheduling beside them.
- Engineering departmentProduct teams under a VP of engineering; platform, data and security under the CTO.
- Operations departmentSupply chain, fulfillment and the functions that keep both honest.
- Product departmentProduct, design, research and the operations that measure them.
- Consulting firmThree practices, one firm behind them, and no engagement on the chart.
- Real estate brokerageAgents who are not employees, on the chart anyway.
- Insurance agencySales on one side, service on the other, and the lines where they meet.
- UniversityAn academic line and an administrative line, and governance kept off the chart.
- E-commerce companyThe site is the store, the warehouse is a contractor, and the lines between them are drawn.
- Veterinary clinicThe doctors own the medicine, the manager owns the day, and the technicians answer to both.
- Auto dealershipThe front end sells the cars; the back end pays the bills; the chart shows where they meet.
- School districtSchools on one line, the money on another, and a board that governs from a second chart.
- Police departmentPatrol takes the calls, investigations takes the cases, and professional standards answers to the chief alone.
- Nursing homeThe administrator holds the license, the director of nursing holds the building, and the survey reads both lines.
- Property management companyThe owners and the boards are clients, the site staff are employees, and the chart is where the two facts meet.
Or start from a structure — functional, divisional, matrix or flat — or from your own spreadsheet. The guides cover a reorg, a merger, an assistant's chart and a consultant's deliverable.
Make it yours
Download the spreadsheet, replace the names, import it — the chart redraws itself. Or start empty and drag people until it's true. Building is free at any size.